


Sweetness

by RedRoseWhite



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: 404 Ben Solo Not Found, Accidental Voyeurism, Baked Goods, Complete, Dark Fuck Prince, Don’t worry they bone eventually, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, F/M, Fluff with someone who isn't Rey, Force Bond (Star Wars), Kylo Ren Eats Pussy, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Not Related, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Kylo Ren is a Mess, Masturbation, No HEA, No Pregnancy, Oral Sex, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Sex Work, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, Threesome, To save the galaxy, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, Voyeurism, kylo ren is not a virgin, non-Reylo pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:01:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23748004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedRoseWhite/pseuds/RedRoseWhite
Summary: Rey tried to shut her Force bond with Kylo Ren permanently on Crait, but the Force willed things to be otherwise. Her curiosity piqued by Kylo 's years-long fixation on a Corellian pleasure-girl, Rey travels to the heart of Fortress Vader, where both Jedi and Sith secrets are revealed. With the help of an echo from the past, Rey repairs the Skywalker saber and prepares the way for Kylo Ren to eventually return to the light.*~*~* Thank you to Reylo Hidden Gems for adding this fic to the collection, what an honour! And this moodboard by QueenOfCarrotFlowers gets every detail exactly perfect.*~*~*
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Original Character(s), Kylo Ren/Original Female Character(s), Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 104
Kudos: 85
Collections: Reylo Hidden Gems





	1. Cerryn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the beginning of his tenure with the Knights of Ren, Kylo Ren meets a pleasure-girl on Corellia who strikes his fancy.
> 
> Seven years later, Jedi apprentice Rey gets some unexpected insight into the relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no non-con or graphic violence in here; but this chapter has a brief mention of consensual BDSM and a very vague reference to hypothetical underage/non-con. If you would like to skip these completely you can start reading at "He’d expected a fake name, but this one made him laugh."

_ Corellia, 28 ABY _

“Kylo. Kylo. Kylo, pay attention, ” Ushar was saying. His voice rose in volume above the first-phase deployment of the  _ Night Buzzard _ ’s landing gear. Kylo’s head jerked up. He wasn’t quite used to his name yet. He certainly wasn’t used to hearing it from Ushar. The only person who spoke to him less was Kuruk, which he didn’t take personally. Kuruk barely said anything to anyone, content to wrap himself in solitude and silence. Ushar was different. He’d talk to you enough if you had his respect. And although he didn’t deign to share his opinions with his leader, Kylo knew Ushar thought that Ap’lek should have taken over the knights, after Ren. The Solo child had landed a lucky blow on their Ren. Even his first kill was accidental. His pedigree would not recommend him either. Houses and legacies and thick veins of Force ability, handed out by the universe seemingly at random, did not impress Ushar. He was a warrior, and he wanted to be led by someone who set an example. Ap’lek had known and, in his way, loved Ren along with the others. Of them all, his mind was the clearest. Ap’lek was stronger in the Force than Vicrul, a better communicator than Kuruk, less impulsive than Cardo, more clever and better at strategy than Trudgen and himself. What did Kylo have, what did Kylo do? A name, and a tantrum that he threw at school. It was pathetic. But Ushar was not Snoke, and he had lost yesterday’s sparring bracket against the others, so it fell to him to explain to Kylo the rules, and be civil about it.

“When we get to the brothel, you will give them any weapons you’re carrying. They will be returned when you leave. If you don’t want anyone else to touch your glow stick, you should secure it on the ship before we disembark. We will enter at street level. The console there is where the hostess will scan our credit chips, and use their genetic sampling device to verify your age and identity.” 

Kylo looked down for a moment, briefly noticing the red reflections of the altimeter in the chrome of his helmet, held in his lap. They’d be off the ship in less than two minutes. Ushar went on;

“The building is divided into floors depending on the client’s…..preference.” 

He took a breath. 

“If you seek only pleasure, take the stairs up from the entrance. The repulsorlift to the subterranean area will bring you to those who accommodate pain. Giving, or receiving.”

At that, he smiled. It wasn’t a friendly smile, but Kylo didn’t expect it to be.

“There are measures in place for the safety of the skin girls - you  **are** going with a girl, yeh?” 

He was, but in an effort to hold some enigma and authority around himself he made eye contact with Ushar and said smoothly; “I haven’t decided yet.” 

Ushar shrugged.

“I only go with basement girls. Anyway, there are panic buttons in places you won’t know about. We can’t have weapons but the guards have taser staffs. Don’t try underground things with upstairs girls, even if you like screaming. The fee will be forfeit and they’ll ban your genetic profile. Perhaps all of ours. We like this place. So don’t be stupid. If that is what you want, the ones who work downstairs can scream convincingly enough.” Then Ushar nodded decisively, which meant he was finished speaking. 

The  _ Buzzard _ settled into its landing, and stilled. Kylo unhooked the saber from his belt, set his helmet aside, and typed six numbers into a keypad beneath his seat. He flicked the compartment open, placed the weapon carefully inside then closed it, listening for the click of the lock. Ushar had put his helmet back on and Kylo did the same. He was soon grateful for the vocal distortion because as they disembarked, Ushar said easily; 

“How funny, that our favourite brothel in this system is on Corellia. Maybe the girls there will remember your father.” 

The emotional distance created by their masks was just enough that he could actually suppress the urge to grab Ushar’s forearm with both his hands and the Force, and twist until he heard a pop.

  
  


Upstairs, Kylo discovered, was only a short flight to climb. Five steps on a crimson carpet and there was the landing. On his right he spied the silver door with the number “2” on it that the hostess had said was to be his, and went inside, misjudging the width of the doorway and hitting it with the datapad in his hand. He took off his helmet to see better in the windowless room, scrutinised the datapad for cracks, and seeing that there weren’t any, shut the door behind him. The room was decorated in shades of blue, with a bouquet of pink and white flowers on the bedside table. There were two armchairs to the left of the doorway, on either side of a console table, where Kylo placed his helmet. To the right was a white sliding panel-style door that probably led to a fresher. Centered on the back wall was the bed. It was made of light-coloured wood, with four big posts and a gauzy blue canopy. The headboard was inlaid with a vine pattern in silver. There was another more discreet panel, the same blue flock as the wall, just to the right of the bed. 

Kylo took a few steps, approaching the foot, and laid the datapad down on the covers. He pulled off the remaining glove that he hadn’t needed to remove to give blood for his genetic sample, and pressed his thumb to the centre of the tablet. It lit up in a soothing soft yellow, and gave him the menu. When Kylo had overheard his knights talking about the things the brothel had to offer, he didn’t imagine they would make it so easy to choose. It was like a tree that went branch by branch towards offering him what he might desire. Human. Female. His age, plus or minus three years. Out of curiosity, he tried to adjust the age slider. No one younger than five years away from Kylo’s age was being offered. Good. This place was reputable. He put the age marker back to three years and pressed the red button that meant he was finished inputting parameters. As soon as the first six images were loaded and he looked at them, he realized that there were a couple of things he’d forgotten. He scrolled to the next six, and on the top row, at the far left, the seventh girl was someone he could choose. 

She was shorter than him, but only by a little bit. Her hair was such a light blonde that her matching eyelashes looked like surreal pale haloes around her dove-grey eyes. She had small breasts, but her hips were wide with a luscious curve. He spun the image of her body around with a twirl of his finger and admired her beautiful, heart-shaped ass. Kylo stared at the picture as a few breaths passed in and out of his mouth. She was perfect. No matter what her gestures were like, no matter what accent she had, no matter how she moved or wore her hair or laughed, this woman looked so different that she could never remind him of his mother. That part was important. It had been a problem before. 

He’d expected a fake name, but this one made him laugh.

“ _ Sareen?  _ You are named Sareen?” 

Kylo tossed his cloak over one of the easy chairs with one arm and threw his head back in a gesture of mirth. The skin girl went to place the tray of wine she carried on the console table out of habit, but his helmet was still there. She slipped gracefully to the bedside table instead and put it down near the bouquet, then perched comfortably on the bed and rubbed her arms. 

“It’s spelled C-E-R-R-Y-N, Kylo,” she said softly, smiling at him. “But I know what it means in Twi’leki. My mother was a dancing girl, she worked alongside Twi’leks. She thought they were the most beautiful creatures in the galaxy. She’d say they could stumble and fall on their faces more gracefully than any human could pirouette. She chose the name, and her father chose the spelling, because my mother couldn’t write.” 

Kylo tried to imagine for a moment what it would be like to have a mother who was unable to read, write, appreciate poetry and parse documents. He couldn’t do it. 

“You can read. You can spell, you just did,” Kylo said slowly, walking over to her. Staring at her face. He wanted to look at those featherlike eyelashes up close. He’d never seen anyone so very blonde all over, in his entire life. Cerryn patted the bed next to her, and he took the invitation to sit down.

“Well, he taught me,” she said, pulling her waist-length hair over one shoulder, then picking up Kylo’s hand in hers. He watched her lithe fingers as they wrapped around his one by one, stroking from the palm to the tip, giving him a tingle. She tugged on his thumb. “If it weren’t for him, I would understand so little. My grandfather taught me everything that is important in life.”

“Ohhh,” sighed Kylo happily, as he raised her hand to his lips to kiss it, to get his first taste of her. What luck. He had chosen so well. “Mine, too.”

  
  


_ Ajan Kloss, 35 ABY _

For weeks, Rey hadn’t been worried at all about being alone. It felt very freeing. She’d blithely hike through the jungle to find the best meditation spots, by herself. Take a night watch shift at the perimeter, by herself. Climb to the top of the falls and study the Jedi texts with the calming sound of rushing water in her ears, by herself. Rey was not worried at all, because on Crait, she had shut down the Force bond with Kylo Ren, and he was never going to visit her again in a lonely moment, whether it was his loneliness or hers. She was strong with the Force, and the wall she had built was impenetrable. 

Until the day it cracked. 

A tiny hairline crack through which Kylo Ren’s world would invade hers. Rey would be sitting outside, eating a soft, sweet bread roll spread with fruit puree, her favourite, and she would smell the distinctive stench of a vibro-axe in action. She would be hanging under the belly of the  _ Falcon,  _ tinkering away, on her back in a specially rigged sling Chewie had made from a tarp for this purpose, and suddenly she could hear a few echoing lines of what sounded like a military bulletin being broadcast throughout a star destroyer. Once she realized what it was, Rey devoted some of her meditation time to shoring up the wall. Then she tried to patch the crack. She followed the path of her breath, calmed her thoughts. Chose one mote of green pollen in the golden air and attuned her energy with it, until she was floating too. Rey pushed her consciousness out to the mote, then split it again to the molecules that it was made of, smaller, smaller, smaller, until her awareness was vibrating almost at the level where everything in existence was just one thing. Unified under the Force. Rey turned her attention to the crack, ready to seal it with all of her strength, and was horrified by what she saw, plain truth, with no room for doubt. There was no closing the bond forever. Snoke had lied. The Force bond between Rey and Kylo Ren was a fundamental part of the universe. She could not deny it any more than she could weave a black hole and collapse the planet on which she was living into itself. One tear escaped her eye and she felt it drop on her clavicle, slowly pulling her consciousness back into her body. Rey’s hands were freezing and her throat was so dry she could have drunk the entire waterfall. She lowered herself slowly to the ground and crouched among the ferns for a moment.  _ What now what now what do I do,  _ she thought, until a warm wave of good sense washed over her and she realized that the rest of her wall was still there. She could just leave the crack that allowed her into Kylo’s world and keep the rest closed. It was better than having no defenses at all. She doubted that Kylo had even noticed it. Rey was certain that if he did, he would have used it to somehow taunt her by now. He was such a brat.

  
  


The sound of the night-time insects was so familiar to Rey that she barely heard it anymore while she patrolled the perimeter of the base, but when the song stopped, she noticed immediately.  _ No _ , she thought,  _ no no no, where am I, where is he,  _ but wherever she was, there wasn’t enough light to see by. She could hear a woman crying, and Rey’s first thought was that she was in a brig, or a darkened interrogation room….  _ Oh, Force, don’t make me witness torture,  _ she prayed. Then the darkness before Rey shifted as flickering candlelight rose, and she saw that the woman wasn’t crying at all. She had delicate hands with perfect nails, and they were running through Kylo Ren’s hair while he had his face pressed between her legs. A cascade of ice began at the top of Rey’s spine, and slid like a calving glacier down her body. Kylo was fully dressed except for his gloves and his mask, and he was kneeling at the foot of a luxurious bed, making this beautiful ethereal woman tremble in his hands. Rey couldn’t stop staring; she had never seen anything like this done before. When Kylo pushed his hands up the back of the woman’s thighs and folded her in half, Rey watched his tongue come away from her pussy with a cobweb of wetness for every long, slow lick. Even with his eyes closed, his face actually looked happy. Suddenly, the whirr of the jungle was in her ears again. Rey set her mouth and marched to the nearest waterfall and back, over and over, not patrolling efficiently, but she didn’t care. Hearing the pounding rush of the water go loud, then quiet, then loud again in her head. As soon as her shift was over, she’d crawl into bed on the  _ Falcon _ and furiously make herself come with both hands, thinking about that tongue. 

  
  
  



	2. Matters of urgency

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo & Cerryn’s encounter from his perspective. Rey realizes that she can go stealth. Memories of Kylo & Cerryn fuel her curiosity.

_ Corellia, 35 ABY _

It didn’t matter that he’d tipped the bottle over when he flung his glove off. Kylo didn’t want any wine. He just wanted Cerryn. “Come here, come here, come here,” he growled, throwing his other glove to the rug, next to the puddle of wine, as he swept toward her in his cloak like a storm cloud. She couldn’t move away fast enough and he got a handful of her simple robe, yanked it open, and pushed it off of her shoulders. Cerryn let the robe drop, put both her hands on his chest and leaned back playfully, as if she didn’t want him to kiss her, as if she hadn’t known him for years, as if she was afraid of him, but the smile on her beautiful face revealed it all as play. He wrapped his forearm around her waist, held her naked body to his tunic, panting hard through his nose and walking her backwards to push her onto the bed. 

“Fuck the wine. I’m drinking you,” Kylo said, grasping Cerryn’s thighs by the crooks behind her knees and bending down to make good on his threat. 

“Ah!,” Cerryn cried out when she felt his eager mouth pressed to her sex. Her breath came so ragged, so quick. He settled into a kneel, worked his strong, slick tongue in her folds to make her fully bloom, then sucked her clit. She was moaning softly now, and Kylo felt her hands all over his head, fingers skimming the tips of his ears. The way she melted so quickly made him feel smug, and he wallowed happily in his smugness. He shoved her knees up to press against her breasts, exposing her pussy to the air, and licked lazily from her opening, all the way up. Her nectar pooled near the mouth of her cunt and he painted it over her clit, again and again with his tongue. Kylo closed his eyes and savoured her, this simple, raw pleasure being given to him so willingly by Cerryn. Unafraid, unhurt, uncomplicated Cerryn. This was so much easier than things with the scavenger. That one, she was just so much  _ work. _

  
  


_ Ajan Kloss, 35 ABY _

It was silly to be startled by bread, but when a golden roll seemed to hop onto Rey’s plate from somewhere above her right ear, she did a little jump on the mess hall bench. 

“Found some extras in the galley, I know they’re your favourite,” Leia said with quiet mischief, hovering behind her. The hand that had just dropped the roll reached down to squeeze Rey’s shoulder. 

“Enjoy your breakfast, my dear.” If Rey had never known hunger, the twinge she felt about keeping the bond a secret from Kylo’s mother might have put her off the sweet bun. As it was, she stuffed the tiny wisp of guilt under her much larger and heavier love of baked goods, calling out “Thank you, Master!” over her shoulder. Leia gave a little backwards wave and kept walking through the sunshine, towards the command centre.

Rey blew playful kisses to Rose and Kaydel as they left the table to convene with the General which they always did in the mornings, noticing that Finn and Poe had also gone and simply left their dirty trays behind. Rude, Rey thought. Whenever they finish making out in whatever cranny they’re wedged into this time, they had better come clean that up. 

The annoyance faded quickly with the third bite of her second sweet roll. Rey felt like she would never get tired of eating real, fresh bread. Then she felt annoyed again for a different reason, because with a whoosh that reminded her of convor wings she was with Kylo again, and he was in small quarters on a ship she didn’t recognize, having a meeting with a holo of Admiral Hux.

“.... these... side projects... are a complete wast- um - drain on, on - finite resources. With all due respect, Supreme Leader, your presence is required aboard the  _ Finalizer _ ,” Hux moved his head nervously and a few locks of hair shifted out of place. “I have sent to your datapad a list of matters of urgency that cannot be settled without your authority.”

From where she was standing, behind a swiveling chair and just to the right, Rey could see Kylo Ren’s bemused expression perfectly, but he apparently could not see her at all. Her block was truly working. Rey had an inkling that she might be able gain some control over when she saw him. He gestured at the air and said in a bored tone, 

“I’ll read the list and respond within 72 hours. When I wish for the  _ Finalizer  _ to be prepared for my arrival, you will be the first to know, Admiral. Supreme Leader out.” Hux’s frustrated presence flickered to emptiness and Rey watched Kylo pick up and manipulate the datapad in front of him, swiping through a roster of planets, noting the names, even though some of them weren’t familiar to her and the others, only vaguely so. Ashas Ree, Moraband, Dathomir, Mustafar. Again. Ashas Ree, Moraband. Dathomir. Mustafar. Dathomir. Mustafar. Ashas Ree. Mustafar. Kylo pulled a pensive expression, pressed his index finger to his lip, then tapped his fingernail three times against his top front teeth. Rey realized she was just sitting in the mess hall again with a bun pressed against her chin, staring off into space. She blinked hard. The red image of Mustafar from the datapad, gone so quickly, had left her eyes filled with the illusion of a floating blotch of luminous blue. 

  
  


After dinner, Rey grabbed the crudely bound pieces of Luke’s lightsaber from its compartment on the  _ Falcon _ and took the eastern path from the base, passing by her favourite waterfall, the one with the lazy mouth right before the cascade. It was so shallow, anyone who climbed to the top could just wade into it and lie down among the rocks. On her rest days from training, when her chores were finished, Rey would strip to her basics and float there. For a person from Jakku, the chance to luxuriate in the caress of clean, sun-warm water until their fingers and toes were almost painfully wrinkled, had felt like something the galaxy would implode before offering. Her heart would sing whenever she got to do it, and it was the perfect spot to meditate and repair the kyber crystal. A place of gratitude. Of peace. On this night, Rey stopped walking as soon as the rush of the cascade was loudest in her ears. That sound brought it back. This was where she had paced to, when she had seen Kylo fucking that girl with his mouth. It felt impossible not to relive it, so she let herself see it again. The woman’s creamy thighs so pliant under his big hands, the ardor of his tongue. Her pubic hair like spun gold, dewy with saliva. Some strands of hair stuck to Kylo’s cheek, streaking his face on the opposite side to his scar… Rey stomped off the path, counting twenty paces and scanning for a large stone, or a rotting log, or even just a particularly stout fern. She found a mossy divot that she supposed would do, made a nest of leaves and branches the length of her forearm and temporarily buried the lightsaber there. Rey turned her back to the nest, knelt on the forest floor, then shoved her hand into her basics. She was so wet. On the Falcon, she would do this with a pillow under her hips, grinding down onto her hand, with the other holding her open, using gravity to her advantage. This was much less comfortable, but she needed it. Rey felt like she had gone without what she needed and wanted for long enough, and on Ajan Kloss, with its delicious bread and extravagant waterfalls and hours where she was allowed to tinker and train as she pleased, she was letting herself just have things. She dipped her fingers low enough to wet them and drew the slipperiness up to her clit, pressing hard, letting out a moan. She imagined what it might be like for that girl to kneel on her soft bed, spread open over Kylo’s searching fingers. She let her cheek rest on the dirt and pretended that the scent of the forest air was what Kylo’s cloak smelled like, brushing her nose while he covered her from behind, biting her shoulder as his hands cradled her sex, dipping a fingertip inside, snaking his other hand around her front, to find her clit and circle on it. Rey’s breath heaved over and over, her neck hurt but she barely cared, she moved her hips and held her finger stiff so that her palm pressed on her clitoris while the pad of her finger rubbed her opening. She finally exploded to the image of Kylo taking the fingers of one hand out of the skin girl, never letting up on her slippery clit with the other, and shoving them against her pretty mouth. Lowering his lips to hers. Licking the pearly cunt juice, together. Rey didn’t know exactly how long she lay there after, but on her way back to camp, with the neglected saber uncovered again and clipped on her belt, at least one of the moons was already very bright. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a bit shorter than chapter 1, but I had to chop a plot bunny. Also, for some reason StormPilot just decided to show up. I don't know, I’m just the author. *shrug emoji*


	3. Present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben Solo was born on the day the Galactic Concordance was signed. It wasn’t a gift he really appreciated, but luckily Cerryn has a way to make up for that. Meanwhile, old friends are reunited for a bittersweet day, and Rey gets an eyeful (and a mouthful).

_ Corellia, 30 ABY, 25th anniversary of the signing of the Galactic Concordance _

The fireworks display was so much less irksome this year, now that Kylo could watch them through the reflections in Cerryn’s eyes instead of having to look to the sky.

“Is that why we’re not in the blue room tonight?” He asked her quietly. “Because this one has a window, and you wanted to see the display?” He wasn’t going to blame her; he’d never mentioned to her how he loathed this day. There were so many things he’d never mentioned to her. Cerryn was too simple and pure.

“No,” she said, turning to look at him for a moment, then back to the window. “We’re in this room because tonight, it’s Evie’s.” Kylo tugged his sleeve up above his elbow and stood behind Cerryn, ignoring the view to stare down at her pale scalp, visible through her moonshine hair. Then he wrapped both arms around her and nuzzled her with his nose. She had never smelled like anything but sunlight on a field of flowers to him. Warm and full of sweetness, like her name. 

“What does Evie have to do with anything,” Kylo asked the nape of Cerryn’s neck, his lips tickling her. He’d met Evie in the lounge at the brothel many times during his visits, once he’d earned a place there to drink the good liquor, with the other regular patrons and the most desireable girls. A veneer of civility and refinement to elevate him above the one-timers who were simply scanned and slunk directly to the staircase or the repulsorlift, not granted any pretence to cover their shame and need. Evie was close to the same height as Cerryn, built lean with almost no curve to her hips, but a feminine air all the same. She had hair the colour of a meiloorun that she wore long and straight, or tied high on her head on weeks when she was working downstairs. Kylo knew that Ushar had never touched her because Evie worked on the wrong side of the pain rooms for Ushar; the giving side. Cerryn bowed her head and turned to face him in one movement. She picked up a bell on the bedside table that he hadn’t noticed until now, ringing it with a smile on her face that was wider than any one he’d ever seen, which was a wonder. Cerryn was one of the happiest people Kylo knew. At the sound, the hidden panel in the room, the one every room had for discretion, opened. 

“Oh Kylo, “ Cerryn said with bubbling delight. The joy and mischief was so apparent in her body, surging under his hands on her waist, that he thought she was going to dance. “Evie is your birthday present. Evie,  _ and _ me.” At that, she did dance, a tiny gallop that pulled her out of Kylo’s arms and around to the foot of the bed. Evie, who had emerged from the hidden panel completely naked except for a thin gold chain looped twice around her waist, met Cerryn there and they crushed their bodies together, kissing passionately. The other woman used one hand to push Cerryn’s hair behind her ear so that Kylo could look directly at their glistening tongues touching. The blonde grabbed a handful of Evie’s pliable ass. The fireworks crescendoed above the city and Cerryn’s white gown fluttered to the floor like thrown petals. She was already flushed and panting, Evie’s mouth covering her nipple, beckoning him with the hand that wasn’t twisted in Evie’s shiny, orange hair. Before tonight, Kylo Ren had  _ hated _ that the entire fucking universe knew exactly when his birthday fell. Tonight…. he hated it a little bit less. 

When the sky was dark again and all was quiet, Kylo amused himself by lightly running his hand beneath the chain around Evie’s middle and rolling it between his fingertips. 

“Where did you come from?” He asked her. 

Cerryn hummed as if she was going to answer, but Kylo shot her a look, so she smiled to herself and went back to working her thumbs into the bottoms of his feet.

“Nowhere,” Evie replied, propping herself on one elbow and turning to face him in the bed. Her milky breast curved invitingly as she shifted. “I was born here.”

“Here, on Corellia? Or here, in the brothel?”

“Both. My mother was a skin girl and my father never claimed me. I have no family, and no hereditary name. I am just… Evie.” She shrugged. 

Kylo let go of the chain, put his hands behind his head and watched the gold tassels on the canopy sway above them.

“Just Evie-with-no-family-name,” he intoned to the shadowy air. Then, bitterly, “Aren’t you the lucky one.” No one spoke in response. Cerryn, who had never lived through a dark moment that she couldn’t illuminate somehow, released Kylo’s foot, crawled up the bed and nestled herself between him and Evie. She put one lily-white hand on each of their thighs and said with her usual kindness, “I think we should do this, every year.” Kylo couldn’t quite let himself smile at that, but he came very, very close. 

  
  


_ Ajan Kloss, 35 ABY, 1st anniversary of Galactic Concordance since its dissolution _

The  _ Falcon _ ’s landing spot was away from the other ships in the Resistance fleet, and it usually sat alone among the mossy canopy to the north of the base, but when Rey returned from meditation in the place that was not on any map but she called Golden Hollow in her head, there was a smaller craft set down near to it. The body of the ship was ordinary enough but through the transparisteel that wrapped around the cockpit, you could see that the interior was decked out in purple. Rey jogged towards the main buildings of the base, determined to find out whose it was. Who would be a stranger to her, and yet know where to find them? Was it safe? Maybe she should ask the General. She wove between the orderly lines of people coming and going from the mess for the evening meal, caught the smell of sausages drifting from the grills, saw Finn and Poe sitting at an outdoor table. They were sharing a Jogan fruit by taking turns cutting a slice from it with a pocket knife, spearing the slice, and feeding it to each other. Rey rolled her eyes and kept walking, to the low building that housed the General’s suites: a comfortable, book-strewn salon, a tidy office, Leia’s bedroom with adjoining fresher, and a simple dining room with a rough-hewn table and stools, that sat eight people. She was just about to turn the corner a few paces from Leia’s door, when she saw Chewie standing guard there. He waved one hand in a gesture that meant not to come any closer. 

“Not now, Rey.” Chewie told her. “You cannot go to Leia today.” A hive of confusion buzzed in her mind. Rey realized that she had not, actually, seen Leia anywhere on the base since the night before. Her peripheral vision caught movement to her right, and she looked through the undressed window of the sparse dining room to see Leia sitting at the head of the table. An older mustachioed man was in the seat on her left, his weathered hand hovering, to come to rest on top of hers with familiarity. The General seemed to be listening intently to what he was saying, but she also looked slouched, and small. Six places were set, with cutlery and cups, but only three of them had any food at all on the plates. Rey just stood there and took it all in, trying to puzzle things out, until Chewie’s voice rose again. He knew that she didn’t speak Thykarann, just Shyriiwook, which wasn’t normally a language of friendship or love, so his words sounded stilted. “Today, is only for old friends. Her life-work, her war-work. Ben’s birth-day. All for nothing, all gone now. We protect her. Many pieces missing from our shield today. Han. Luke. Amilyn….. I am here. Lando is here. Together, we watch the day, we carry Leia, and we try.” Rey had to look up so much to meet Chewbacca’s eyes that it crunched her spine, so she only did it for a moment, and then she threw her arms around him and squeezed her tears out into his fur. 

“Thank you,” She said simply, then walked as quickly as she could, past the other buildings of the base, past Poe’s latest X-Wing and the  _ Falcon _ , back to Golden Hollow. Her cheeks felt tight, because all of her tears were dry now. She was going to delve into the bond, confront its mysteries, and never allow herself to say two words about it to her Master, but that burden was just the price. The Force had forged it for a purpose, and though Rey couldn’t be sure about what that purpose was, maybe there was enough grace in the galaxy, for her to make her own.

  
  


_ Corellia, 35 ABY, 1st anniversary of Galactic Concordance since its dissolution _

Because Rey had never been to Corellia on Concordance Day, she didn’t even notice the absence of fireworks this year. Even if there had been any, it would have been impossible to watch them and ignore the sight of Kylo Ren having his cock sucked by two beautiful women, the blonde she recognized and the redhead that she didn’t, at the same time. They were all three so pale that they shone like moonstone, Kylo sitting on the crimson bedding, the girls kneeling on the black carpet with gold trim, woven in brocade. Rey had recently started watching holovids of this sort of thing, now that she had a private place to sleep and reliable access to holos, but seeing it happen to someone whose name she knew, gave her a thrill that anonymous hands and thighs and mouths never had. She gazed at the women kissing each other and Kylo’s raging prick all in one, while he looked down at them with an expression that Rey wanted to crack. The blonde girl dipped to run her tongue over his balls and he fell backwards on the bed, moaned loudly, then struggled up to his elbows to keep watching. 

“Oh, that was a fun noise, Cerryn, show me,” the redhead said. “I want to make him do that again.”  _ The blonde is Sareen _ , Rey thought to herself.  _ Easy to remember.  _

“Go slow, with your tongue. Then suck,” Cerryn said softly. The ginger girl tried it and Kylo went; 

“Unnhhhh-huhhh-huhh,” with his head thrown back. Cerryn grasped his dick just below the head and squeezed, to help him come back to himself, because she could tell that he needed it. 

“Evie, I said  _ slow _ ,” Cerryn chastised. Her tone was like a feather falling to rest on a satin pillow. “Remember that he’s not like those leering dockhands you spank until they spend. This one is a  _ prince _ .”

She worked her cheeks to collect the saliva in her mouth and drooled it artfully onto the purple head, then swirled it around using three fingertips and her thumb. 

“Call me that again,” came a slightly strained voice from the bedsheets, “And perhaps there will be some spanking, after all.”

“Oh, hush,” Cerryn said playfully. She gave his prick one last long lick and crawled up the bed, all pale nimble limbs and cascading hair. She looked over her shoulder at Evie, but from Rey’s vantage point it seemed like she was speaking to her. “I suppose it’s alright if you ride him this time,” she said with a lilt in her voice. She spoke so shamelessly, but it wasn’t in the murky wanton tone of a whore. It was the blissful shamelessness of someone who truly loved pleasure, and lived in love. “It’s my turn to come on his mouth.” 

  
  


_ Ajan Kloss, 35 ABY, 1st anniversary of Galactic Concordance since its dissolution _

The people who remembered what day it was, aside from those who were keeping vigil with Leia, had gathered around a bonfire they’d built at the edge of one landing pad. Even from a distance, as she slipped along the path from Golden Hollow towards the palace of masturbation that she called the  _ Falcon,  _ Rey could hear the loud conversations, fueled with alcohol. The desperate camaraderie of people who were trying to sustain their hope.  _ It’s going to be alright,  _ Rey told herself.  _ I trust in The Force. _ She took a few deep breaths and tried to pass by the crooked revelry without being noticed, but a merry Kaydel Connix, cheeks pink with a boozy flush, ran up to intercept her, and got a hold of her wrist. “Hey, Rey, hey, Rey, guess what,” she slurred. 

“What?” Rey smiled at Kaydel, who had no idea what she was going through and deserved to be treated with kindness.    
“Rose dared me to kiss you. So I’m gonna,” Then she moved in and pinned Rey against a crate that contained two very valuable 04-Z cryogenic power generators. What were those doing so close to a bonfire? Kaydel’s hair smelled like millaflowers and her kiss was surprisingly warm and chaste, with not too much tongue. After what Rey had just seen, this level of restraint felt adorable. The kiss broke naturally and Kaydel pulled back, smiling brilliantly. 

“Now; you’re it!” she said, as if they were playing a children’s game. Rey put a strong arm around the other woman’s shoulders and steered her towards Rose, who looked a bit more sober. All Rey had to do was raise one eyebrow. 

“That is  _ not _ what I said,” Rose said carefully. “There was no dare.” 

“Ok, I believe you,” Rey said with a sigh, “Now please put her to bed before there is any more trouble.” 

Once she was alone on the  _ Falcon _ , in the cool bed in just her basics, Rey tried to get off, but it wasn’t working. She’d get close, then the sensation would fizzle. Twice, she actually fell asleep and so did her hand, because she was lying on top of it. Finally, she pulled her fingers out of her shorts and dried them on the sheet. She’d left the door open because she knew Chewie would be at Leia’s until morning, and from the bed she could see some of the lights of the control panels of the ship, white and yellow and red, unchanged over decades. Rey thought about all of the things that had happened under those lights. “Happy birthday, Ben, “ she whispered. Then she slept. 


	4. Two truths and a lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey has a true dream that tells her where to go. Kylo is finally ready to claim his queen, but events have conspired against him.  
> TW: (Brief mention of hypothetical pregnancy. Nobody is actually pregnant.)

_ The deserted bridge of the Supremacy, 35 ABY _

“What’s on Mustafar?” Rey the Jedi asked Kylo Ren. 

“A palace.” he said wistfully, not looking at her, staring out through the transparisteel. Somehow, in the starlight, his scar looked darker, and so did his lips. A whole face in red and white. “A fortress, whose very shape can amplify the might of the Dark side. It commands a river of lava. My queen is going to live there, I’m making it fit for her. All that remains is to finish exterminating the fen rats who worship it.” His voice restrained and low. Rey watched Kylo’s fist tighten. She felt as though she was wedged between the folds of his glove, at the curl of his palm.

“Sounds so romantic,” Rey said sarcastically. Suddenly Kylo was behind her and she was the one in the window, staring into the field of stars. His hands ran flat up and down her torso, he seemed to press down especially to feel the roughness of her hard nipples, wrap his fingers around her hip bones. She was powerless to stop him from learning her body, her arms held prone by the Force. His breath rasped scornfully in her ear. 

“Oh, but it is,” he sneered. “My grandfather kept his love in that place. Her spirit lives there forever, in a vortex on the Dark side,” Kylo put a hand to Rey’s throat, held it. Then the other was under her clothing, in her basics, ploughing her open. She dangled from his glove by her neck, able to breathe, but only just. Rey rocked her hips so that Kylo’s marauding fingers slicked her, rubbed big and hard against her. Rey was desperate to suck her own wetness off of the leather, let him shove it all in her mouth while he took her on the ground, like a beast. Every star bearing witness. She thought she was going to come, right then.

“It’s a surprise for  _ her _ ,” Kylo said between clenched teeth, suddenly letting go of Rey’s throat. Now the merciless hand on her hungry cunt was the fulcrum. Both of her own hands were wrapped around his forearm, pushing and pulling. Not to escape. Rey looked down at the black tile of the floor, flecked with shining drops that could have been sweat. Maybe they were tears. “But I’ll show it all to you, if you want to see it.” A sinister promise. Rey tried to do something with her breath other than pant and moan, but her mouth had forgotten every word in the universe. Kylo sank to his knees and brought her down with him, his own voice empty gasps of nonsense, howling through her ears like wind. Then the sound of Lando’s ship backfiring upon liftoff pierced the morning air above the  _ Falcon _ , and Rey jerked awake, on the mat beside her bed. She gingerly rubbed the spot on her hip that hurt from her fall. She had to sneak off-world and head to Mustafar. She did want to see it. He would be there soon.

_ Corellia, the same day, 35 ABY _

“I will not accept this. Have I not given you enough credits to buy this entire br- establishment three times over?” Kylo said with quiet menace to the woman who currently owned Cerryn. The madam wrung her hands with too many rings on them, but from her neck up, still tried to seem in control. They were in her office, where the hostess had escorted him as soon as he began to make a scene. It smelled like old perfume and new fear.

“Cerryn is - unwell, Supreme Leader. Please, we would be so honoured to give you another one of the girls. You may buy Cerryn’s bond on your next visit.” He didn’t know why she was wasting her breath like this, he could tell that even she knew he’d never touch anyone else unless Cerryn was there, too.

“Evie?” He tested, as if he cared. As if he would accept. Evie didn’t have any gag reflex, but she was not his Cerryn. She could barely rub his feet properly. 

“Evie is also…. Indisposed.” The madam’s eyes were emphatically shifting around the room. He’d never seen anyone so bad at concealment, at buying time. Kylo did not have patience for this. What he did have was the highest title, almost-unmatched Force ability, a military fleet at his command and now, a palace that sat on unimaginable power. He had done all of this, without the approval of his faithless esoteric uncle or his moronic, ineffectual parents. Without ever touching the vaults of that pathetic coward Bail Organa, who, instead of openly and proudly fighting for the world he wanted, had hidden behind a hotheaded teenaged girl. Kylo Ren was here to collect his queen, and if he had to rally his knights to sweep without mercy through this brothel of unarmed women and rutting men and take his lightsaber to every wall, door and window to get to her, he would.

He didn’t have to. All he had to do was lift one hand. The madam didn’t know whether Kylo Ren was about to Force-choke her or probe her mind for the truth, but she quickly decided that the terror wasn’t worth one ruined whore. She had hoped to deal with it all quietly over the next few days. Her plan was to send Ren a missive telling him that Cerryn’s contraceptive implant had failed. That when she lost the child, a fever had come over her, and quickly taken her life. No one could have said it was anyone’s fault. It happened often enough to women who had no one to protect them. She’d hoped that Ren’s regret over the death of his potential heir would keep him away. If she did it all through distance, in writing, no one would have any way to read her body language or mind and know it was all a lie. At that moment, sitting in her office across from the Supreme Leader, the madam had cryptberries in her pocket, to place in Cerryn’s evening meal. By sunrise, her body would have already been fed to old Syke’s hounds. While she rose from her desk as if commanded by Kylo’s hand, she let go of this foolproof plan and prepared to simply show him the truth. She didn’t think he would prefer this version, but it was the only one that existed now. 

It was his first time seeing her room, in the part of the brothel that was for living, and not fantasy. It was a place so like her; simple yet filled with invitations to beauty. A generous garland of dried flowers hung along the wall above her small white bed. One shelf with seven books, all bound and re-bound, as if they had been read hundreds of times, but never handled carelessly. A half-finished gown of soft yellow fabric was lying in pieces on a little table; pinned here and there, a cuff to a sleeve to a bodice. Kylo had known Cerryn Kestis and her clever, nimble hands for seven years, but he’d never realized she could sew. 

“Grandfather?” Cerryn asked the air above her pillow. “Have you come back from Zeffo? Did you solve any new riddles?” 

Kylo’s eyes scanned her face before he decided whether or not to speak. A beam of sunlight was falling directly across her eyes, but her pupils were big and blown, not shrinking at all from the glare.

“I’ve been talking to the birds today, “ Cerryn babbled in a sing-song voice. Her hands fluttered and her fingers twirled aimlessly. “They told me what it is like to drink from the clouds.” 

Kylo was grinding his teeth so hard, his head hurt. He turned to the door and waited for one moment, his cloak rippling behind him, then walked out of Cerryn’s room. 

“Grandfather?” She called. “Please, don’t go away again, not so soon. I haven’t even shown you my shell collection yet. I found a new one yesterday, it is pink, and it whispers.”

Ushar was waiting for him in the lobby, his mask on, his weapon in his hand despite the hostess’ uneasy expression.

“We are leaving. She isn’t coming, “ Kylo said, forcing himself to realize it as he formed the words. Ushar’s head cocked, so Kylo explained. “Cerryn has been lost to the spice known as glitterstim. She is blind now, and insane.”

The madam almost breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the back of Ren and his man, but it was sucked back into her pounding chest when he paused for the second time in a second doorway, and turned his haunted eyes to her.

“Wait,” he murmured, “Tell me now. Where is Evie?” 

She stuttered, but he was out of time for her lies, so he reached into the madam’s mind, and yanked the information out himself. 

Evie was bound in one of the downstairs suites, but instead of being with a patron, she was with two members of the Corellian Security Force, and on the table between her and the officers were five small packets of glitterstim that had been found in her pocket, among her cosmetics, and hidden around her room. 

During the silent trip on the  _ Night Buzzard _ back to the  _ Finalizer _ , Kylo paced and paced in his quarters. Why was Cerryn spiked with glitterstim, and why was it in Evie’s possession? Evie, Evie, Evie, a nameless skin girl living in Coronet City. How did she afford so much of it? Who could she possibly have gotten it from? One of the patrons who so enjoyed receiving her beatings that they wanted to give her a gift? Then why squander it on slipping it to Cerryn, to the point of spice-sickness, instead of selling it and using the money to pay down her bond? Pain. Money. Glitterstim. Cerryn, utterly ruined. Suddenly, Kylo plunged into the pool of understanding. He knew someone who could get glitterstim. He knew someone whose father was a whoring worm, who might have a half-sister living in a brothel in Coronet City. Someone with hair the colour of a meiloorun. Someone who, like his sister, truly enjoyed inflicting pain. Someone who would take enormous pleasure in seeing Kylo Ren’s triumph, the legacy he was to build with his pale queen in his grandfather’s fortress, crumble like Sansanna spice.  Kylo decided to change course and head for Mustafar, even though Cerryn would never see it. He needed to meditate and wrap himself in the power of his grandfather, and decide how best to strike a vengeful blow against Armitage Hux.


	5. Encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey sets sail with BB-8. Kylo learns why Cerryn was poisoned. An ominous fortress contains an unexpectedly benevolent presence.

_ Ajan Kloss, night _

“I’m sorry about this BB-8,” Rey said softly, her hand twisting in the droid’s innards. She let out a little grunt when his transmitter’s pins disconnected from the port. “This ship needs a minimum crew of two, but I can’t let you give us away. Not even accidentally.” 

BB-8’s photoreceptor did a full swivel as he urgently chirped.

“You’ll see when we get there,” Rey told him. She tucked the loose wires in neatly so they could be easily reconnected later. More beeps and blips.

“Yes, it’s probably dangerous. I promise I know what I’m doing. Please, little friend, trust me?” Rey replaced the casing on BB-8’s body, then reached out and affectionately pet the antenna she’d straightened on Jakku, in the way she often did. The droid let out a trill and rolled to wait for Rey to pick up her satchel, staff and bedroll from the tarmac next to the CEC craft they’d be using to travel. It was the ship that had been used to deliver the 04-Zs, and it was small, fast, and not very famous. No one was going to miss it, not until long after they missed Rey, and she still had a few hours before breakfast. If nobody knew which ship she was on, it would buy them extra time. Together she and BB-8 initiated liftoff, thrust away from the planet, and escaped the atmosphere of Ajan Kloss. Meanwhile, the rest of the base slept through the night’s stunning double moonrise, and a pair of zymods drank from the waterfall’s mouth.

  
  


_ Aboard the Night Buzzard _

Kylo knew they’d lose a few hours by dropping out of hyperspace, but he considered it an acceptable loss. It was late evening on Coruscant and he needed to access a comms channel. When Hux answered, it was obvious that he was in his quarters, shirtless. Kylo’s eyes narrowed and all he said was; “Hux.”

The brazen weasel narrowed his eyes back. Neither of them spoke.

“Permission to address you in perfect candor, Supreme Leader,” Hux began formally. Kylo could tell he was trying to use his less-haughty voice. Fine.

“Granted.”

“I am truly sorry, but something had to be done. This…. diversion was contributing to a perception of you being unhinged. It was harming the organization, a cause we both believe in. Your miscalculation on Takodana, losing the droid. Taking a detour to act out family dramas on Starkiller instead of leading an effective defense of the asset. And your behaviour on Crait came across as a manic tantrum. To this day, all the rank and file understand about that incident, is that the highest-ranking person on the battlefield was screaming at a ghost. ” 

Kylo turned his back to the holo and pretended to pace, so that Hux couldn’t see him cover his face with his hand. Just a shifting black cloak swirling in his field of vision. 

“Your power lies in mastering forces beyond the comprehension of many,” Hux conceded, which was easier for him to do to Ren’s cloak than to Ren’s face, “But to most in the First Order, we are a military organization. Those you lead are soldiers, and they crave superiors with discipline, self-control, a sharp, decisive mind. For all of our differences, I am certain that you are not a stupid man. You must understand Ren, if you had been allowed to marry a whore and gone to play house and frolic in a derelict palace of sorcery, there would have been a mutiny. It would make whatever mysterious carnage that took place in Snoke’s throne room when you… ascended, look like a Life Day song-circle. Your knights are fearsome and loyal, and your - your command of the Force is great. But if Pryde and Phasma's successor, among others, choose to turn the corps against you, the numbers alone would guarantee their victory.” 

The Admiral paused to take a breath. Kylo had turned back around to the holo console and was staring at his Adam’s apple as if it held the mysteries of the universe. “Finally, a warning; Pryde is watching. If you simply transfer your affec- um, fixation - to the little desert rat, he will inch closer to moving against you. I urge you to tread carefully in that regard. Perhaps even take a wife from among our ranks to deflect suspicions of your loyalty.” 

Kylo’s insides churned with resentful gratitude for this skin-saving intel as well as the certainty that he would never use it. “Is that all,” he enunciated. 

“Yes, thank you, “ Hux’s voice rose to haughtiness again. “Was there anything else you wanted to address, Supreme Leader?”

“Certainly. I wanted to tell you that your sister looks very beautiful with my cum on her eyelashes.” Kylo said with ennui, then cut the comm. After a moment, he’d tell Kuruk to jump back to hyperspace. 

In his quarters, Hux breathed hard through his nostrils four times, unlocked his datapad with his thumbprint, opened his personal log, and beneath the date line, typed; FFFUCK YOU K YLO REN.

_ Mustafar _

She had never even visited this place in her dreams, but finding the right place to land, close to the structure, was easy. The Dark side surged and ebbed only to surge again against Rey’s consciousness, like a barely-heard but eternal song. Her heart pounded at the sight of the palace; stacks of black towers at the edge of a cliff cascading with lava. There was nothing graceful about it and yet it was elegant to look at; a monument to power for power’s sake. 

Right before leaving the ship, Rey patted BB-8 again and said; “You stand guard, BB. If I am not back here in twenty-four hours, use the ship’s comm to send a distress call to Poe.” Normally, she would have designated the General as the contact, but Rey was not ever, if she lived a thousand years, going to be a person who summoned Leia Organa to Mustafar. 

As she approached the entrance at the end of a path that snaked along the cliff, she followed her breath, anchored in calm, as Luke and Leia had taught her. The Force was with her, the Force was everywhere, even here. Perhaps, especially here. At the end of the path, Rey stood before the huge door, her bag in one hand and her staff in the other, and kept spiraling her mind along the shape of the breath that enlivened her. 

The Dark coalesced and arose before her in her minds eye, a column of a thousand black hands. Rey slung her staff across her back by its strap, reached out in the Force and grasped one of the hands, which hauled her forward, crawling up to her heart, so sudden and shocking that the wind was gone from her lungs and for a moment she could not open her eyes. Then the crushing pressure was lifted, Rey could smell old stone, and she was able to see once more. The Jedi was now standing on the other side of the door. Fortress Vader had taken her in. 

The great hall was wide and so tall that Rey could not see any ceiling. There seemed to be so many doorways and corridors and no direction in particular was calling to her. _ Which way, which way do I go _ , she thought to herself, and then in a moment, the inside of her pack lit up with a familiar and long-missed shade of blue. Rey could feel the warmth of it, radiating. She pulled out the broken lightsaber, still held together with only a leather strip, the exposed crystal still cracked. It would not work as a weapon, but the kyber was glowing bright, and once Rey had it in a firm grasp, she felt it sing into her mind. The hum and pulse and rhythm began to guide Rey’s steps, and soon she was relieved to see it was taking her along a route where debris had been cleared and lighting had been hung aloft, anew. 

Rey knew that this palace was haunted; she had read some things about it in writings of Luke’s. Sinister names, like Plagueis and Momin. She had never met a Sith Force ghost yet, and she had an idea that they would come deformed and oozing out of a shadow, to wrap her in icy presence. This was why, when the kyber guided Rey to the final threshold, to a huge, luxe bedroom hung with gold and and green and a large mirror that reflected a roaring fire, she was surprised to see the only spirit that was waiting for her had eyes she could fall into for thousands of leagues. Lips like flower petals. Skin like the clouds above a summer field. 

“You broke Ani’s lightsaber,” Padmé Amidala said evenly. “Come here,” she beckoned Rey nearer in a graceful gesture, “And I will show you how it can be fixed.” With the same slow, even steps Rey had made on Ahch-To, she walked towards the apparition with the saber held in an extended arm. “But before we set to work on that,” Padmé told her, “You will need to understand something new, about the Force.”

Rey felt Kylo Ren coming before she saw him. His hard, tight emotions dragged across her meditating mind like thorny branches. He swept into the room with his breath heaving and his fists clenched. Now that the shock had worn off, disappointment and rage were twisting in him like fighting snakes. The only thing that gave him pause was the question of whether he was going to gouge Cerryn’s useless bedroom into ruin with his saber, or get the more physical satisfaction of violently dismantling it with his hands. He decided to begin by smashing the mirror and throwing the frame into the fireplace. Maybe he could use a piece of it as a torch to set the golden tapestries alight. Maybe the heat on his body would burn the grief from his soul. 

Sitting in meditation pose on the bed, with the Skywalker lightsaber in her pack beside her, Rey was picturing the waterfall on Ajan Kloss, with the wall in their bond at the bottom. Rey let the water of her mind flow through the crack, cascading and wetting the foundations. She built up the pressure behind it, with the strength and inevitability of a natural flow, and then she washed the whole thing away. Kylo turned and stared at her, with his fist still raised near the mirror. His face was as pale as it had been in her dream. 

“Are you really here?” He asked. Rey nodded, silently. Then, because she didn’t trust her throat, she said through the bond, _ You will need to understand something new about the Force _ . Kylo Ren tilted his head and looked at her curiously, approached Rey where she sat on the bed. His hands and arms unclenching.

“It’s you, isn’t it,” he whispered. “The Force brought you here.” One hand came up and he rubbed his thumb on her lip. Then he leaned down and kissed her and his mouth became the whole universe, something that had everything she wanted, something that she could run to, take from, explore. His tongue touching hers made her ache with longing. Rey held both of Kylo Ren’s forearms in her hands, brought his palms to her body to caress her. Then, because he could not use his lips for speaking, he sent the words into her mind.  _ I should have, should have, should have known. This place is a stronghold that demands the greatest strength. It’s you, Rey. **You’re** the queen. _


	6. The blade of the heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secrets of Jedi & Sith are revealed. If Rey is going to succeed, she’ll need to keep Kylo distracted.

Rey pulled back from the kiss and opened her eyes. Kylo’s hands were just skimming her sides, as though he wanted to grasp her but she was incorporeal.

“There was a queen in this palace, already,” she said, looking straight into his eyes without fear. “She told me her secrets. Oh, Ben, I have so much to show you.”

“The Sith and the Jedi believe that the Force is two-dimensional; Dark or Light, Passion and Power or Justice and Peace.” Padmé began in her steady voice. Rey lowered the saber and watched the shimmer from the fireplace reflected in the queen’s warm eyes. She was reminded of Leia, of undeniable authority, wielded by the gentlest hand. “But they are wrong. The world is three-dimensional, is it not? And the shape of the Force is concurrent with the shape of the world. All of the Jedi’s foolish missteps, all of the Sith’s fruitless pursuits. It is because they are out of harmony with the very nature of existence, and they deny the third dimension of the Force.” 

Rey felt like the answer was circling them both, in the air. She swallowed, clipped the saber to her belt, and Padmé went on. “They try to live in the world but not be  _ of _ it. My son struggled so much with that. But for all of Yoda’s wisdom, Luke was never taught the right skills. It was all just training for non-attachment. As if the best way to protect a world, is to care for nothing in it.” 

The flames lowered for a moment, and Rey’s fingers on the saber’s hilt twitched. They suddenly felt so, so cold. 

“Love,” Rey whispered, and at last Padmé’s dancing eyes met hers. “The third dimension of the Force, it’s love.”

“Your cleverness reflects well on the guidance you’ve had from my children,” Padmé said wryly. “Sith Power without love is oppression and abuse; the Justice of the Jedi without love is hubris. The Jedi version of peace is joyless monotony. If you walk in love foremost, expecting to give and ready to receive, trusting in it to be present and eternal, no matter what side of the Force you draw from, dark or light, all you do in life will serve its will.” She clasped her hands in front of her waist and stared at them. “If Luke had remembered his love for my grandson above all else, he would have sought Ben’s light as hard as he had believed in Anakin’s, dealt with him tenderly, and in good faith. So much of my daughter’s grief, averted.” Padmé looked at Rey, then away, not at the fire, but the reflection of the fire in the mirror. 

“Force adepts think of the Force as something impersonal, neutral, it belongs to itself and the Universe alone,” The queen said, and Rey nodded. She remembered Master Luke saying something similar to her. “But they are only partially right. As I have explained, love can shape the ways of the Force. And love, little Jedi, is something that all sentient beings have the power to create.” 

“Tell me. Show me now,” Kylo commanded, dragging off his gloves. They fell to the floor like big black spiders. Ignoring what she had called him. That was forgivable just now. Almost everything he wanted from the world was in this room at this moment. Secrets from Vader’s castle. The scavenger’s tongue writhing on his. Open to him, for the taking. It felt like the most power he’d ever held in his power-hungry life. He wanted to scratch his palms until they were sore. The backs of his arms felt cold, as if he’d fallen on ice. 

“No,” said Rey. “Not just yet.” She breathed hard twice, in out, in out. Her chest heaved. Her hands unclasped his cloak and she pulled it over one of his shoulders, towards herself. He’d been traveling in close quarters and it smelled of him. Rey wanted to fist it into a ball and ride it until she screamed, like her pillow on the  _ Falcon _ . When he saw her thoughts, he looked at her with widening eyes. He knelt on the bed in front of her and gripped both of her shoulders. 

“Well, then,” Kylo growled at Rey, “Show me more of  _ that. _ ”

Rey gave him images of herself on her back, on her knees, flushing pink from her cheekbones to her collar bone, gasping, stroking between her legs. Sweet-smelling strands of pearly wetness stretching across her hands. Two fingers, in her own mouth. “Stars,” Kylo said, his breath coming harder. “You’re  _ beautiful _ .” 

“So are you,” Rey said, and he saw himself from her eyes, sparring shirtless in the training room, his whole broad body alight. Reading a book by the transparisteel in his quarters, his bare feet resting one on top of the other like two shells. Standing in his fresher among drifts of steam, curling over like a new leaf, spending into his own hand. Kylo surged up and threw Rey to the bed on her back. One of his hands pressed her wrist above her head and he used the other to balance his weight on top of her. “You’ve been watching me, after Crait, when I thought the bond was closed.”

“Yeh-hesss”, Rey admitted, her voice hitching as he ground against her body.

“Are you afraid of me?” He let go of her wrist and grasped her chin so that she couldn’t look away from him. Nothing existed in her field of vision except his eyes. Rey hooked her legs near his knees and rubbed herself against him. 

“ _ Answer _ .” He said it both with his mouth and in the bond.

“Mmmmff,” Rey whined. Kylo’s eyes hovered, merciless. “No, no no no,” she whispered, finally. “I could never fear you now,” She panted. Her voice was grating and low. “I’ve seen how we’re bonded, in the deepest weft of the Force. It’s the will of the universe, Ben. We’re two halves of the same thing. And if you only look for it - unnnhh - as I did, you’ll see the same.” 

“Shhhh shh shh,” Kylo said. He crawled his hand up to cover her mouth, but she parted her lips and teeth to take it inside. He ran the tips of his first two fingers in a circle on the flat of her eager velvet tongue. 

“Don’t call me that, “ He said. Rey moaned around his fingers and took a deep breath through her nose. She was drunk on the hope Padmé had given her in their encounter before his arrival, she’d forgotten that Ben wasn’t ready yet. It was still her task to prepare him for what would lie ahead. 

“How do you know all this?” Rey asked. The queen looked back at her. “How are you  _ here _ ? Kylo - Ben - said Vader trapped you in a Dark side vortex.”

“Even when Snoke does speak the truth to his charges, it is a twisted thing,” Padmé answered wearily. “Anakin sought me out in the portal; it's true, but I was not there to be found. He was as susceptible to Sith lies as our grandson, I suppose. When I believed there was nothing for me to accomplish in the realm of the living, I was resting in my place among the ancestors. However, the Force seeks balance. For every moment Anakin spent seeking me in another world, I am permitted to manifest in this one. Long have I waited behind the veil, learning what I could of the Force from the other spirits in this place. Living in parallel to the creatures that walked these halls, until I once again heard Anakin’s second kyber’s song, and knew it was my call to return for borrowed time.” 

Rey felt sick. All those years, haunting the ghost of the man she had loved. Witnessing his lethal cruelty where there had once been hard-won patience and honour. Waiting and longing for the call of the light to ring out, from the centre of the darkest place in the galaxy, Darth Vader's palace built on top of a temple of the Sith. 

“I lived my life in service to those who needed me, and through that service I was made strong,” Padmé said, as if she knew Rey’s thoughts. “I am no coward. To serve those who seek my help in death, makes me doubly proud. Once my work is done, I will rest forever, among the heroes who came before.” The image of Leia, who had the heart of her mother, sitting at the table with only Lando, while Chewie stood and cast his shadow over three empty chairs, rose up in Rey’s mind.

“Please, if you can at all,” She said, tears spilling over, “Show me how to teach these things to Ben. I need to bring him to Leia. Han and Luke are gone. It falls to me.”

Padmé’s eyes were sad, but held so much love that it didn’t hurt to look at them.

“I am not certain that it does, little Jedi. Your path is long, and you will both seek the treasure in Vader’s tomb before the end. He’ll only welcome the Light when he is ready, but you have a chance to ease the way. Quickly now, he is arriving soon, and we must repair the crystal. Hold the saber out to me.” Rey obeyed, unclipping it and feeling the two halves slide and grind against one another in their bond. The queen gently put her hand to the hilt. “The Force is the blade of the heart,” she whispered, and was gone forever from the fortress, having used the very last of her worldly essence to heal the crystal. All that remained was to repair the casing; the centre was melded as one. In the sudden silence, Rey walked to the bed, sat on the edge and meditated. She waited for Kylo Ren to come, so that she could finish what Padmé, Leia and Cerryn had started, and lay bare for him the love that was entwined with the energy between all things. 

Having Kylo’s fingers in her mouth was even better than she had imagined. She could smell the residual sweat on his hands from when he’d been wearing his gloves. His thumb rested gently on her jaw, and she tried to guess how it would feel inside her. Rey let him rub her tongue with his fingertips, then sucked them. She was so excited that she couldn’t tell what to do with her hands, so she just grabbed handfuls of his tunic, squeezed, let go, then grabbed again. He let his fingers slip from her lips and sat up so that he was kneeling over her. Rey held eye contact with Kylo as she undid the fastenings of her belt and the underlying ties that held her clothing to her body.  


“Take it off,” she whispered to him. He pulled his own tunic over his head and dropped it, then realized she had meant for him to pull her wraps and draping away. After he did it, Rey lolled among the pillows in the firelight and he memorized the pink of nipples as he pulled off her boots, then shed his own. 

“Show me again,” Kylo said, his boot falling to the floor, swallowing hard. Instead of using the bond, Rey rolled to all fours, slipped her leggings to her knees, and put the fingers of one hand on her cunt, the other hand gripping a pillow above her head. He stared at the pink wetness for a moment, then moved to take down her hair. Rey breathed heavily as his gentle touch tickled the nape of her neck. She moaned and arched her back.  


“I need to taste you,” he rasped, and then his face was wedged behind her, his big tongue bumping against her fingers, dipping inside her, reaching for her clit. She stopped touching herself and used both hands to grab the pillows, focusing on the feeling of Kylo eating her out, moaning like an animal. Lifting her ass and pushing back on his mouth. He pulled away and bit her gently right at the top of her thigh. Rey turned around and put both hands on Kylo’s chest, nudging him down on his back. “My turn,” she panted in his face, grasped his hair and pulled it back to lick his neck. She stripped her leggings and crawled before him, naked, dragging her tongue from the waistband of his trousers to just above his navel. Kylo Ren lifted his hips to take off his pants, lost his balance, and rolled right off of the bed.


	7. The bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo can’t resist Rey’s offer of her body and her virginity... but is that all Rey’s going to give him?

He looked up and saw a pair of twinkling eyes peering at him from the bed. Playful and disarming now, like Cerryn’s were always. Perhaps even sweeter, because they hadn’t been, always. He’d seen Rey raging, tearful, defiant, parrying and striking and driving him back. Withholding. Now, Kylo could discern the curve of her peachy ass by firelight. Naked on this bed, in the seat of his power, willing for him to take her. His pride surged like a rising snake. He would not let a momentary humiliation ruin this gift, it was nothing compared to what he could do to her. Watch her moaning for hours, hovering above. He would.

“Are you alright?” Rey asked Kylo. They both looked his body up and down. 

“Yes.” he replied shortly. She reached out one hand. He took it, his fingers wrapping around her wrist, pulled himself back up, clambered on to the mattress. Rey moved in to kiss him, she wanted to feel the longing again, the ache at the base of her skull that streamed and wound around her body like a ribbon, tingling where it touched. He palmed her breast, and suddenly it was so real, Kylo’s hands on her skin where no one else had touched her since Jakku. Their kiss went on for so long that her tongue felt cold. 

Rey could see them in the mirror next to the bed, her chest was flushing like it did whenever she made herself come and Kylo’s hand was rubbing her nipple and the other was clasping her around her waist, holding her where he wanted her, kneeling opposite him on the bed. She rested one hand on his shoulder and broke their kiss, licked her palm, then reached into his pants, arching up to rub the bridge of her nose on his throat. Her fingertips brushed his cock, then grasped it once she knew the angle of his hard-on and he grunted softly, just a small release of breath. His fingers pressed the flesh of her breast between them. She knew to use firm pressure on him, a gentle squeeze as she moved her hand up and down. Kylo bent forward and pressed his forehead to hers, breathing heavily with eyes closed. Rey gave him more kisses on his lips, his perfect cheek, his scarred cheek. She stroked him slowly and felt his heartbeat build. As soon as his breath went shaky, she stopped and let go, then they were both undressing him and he was catching his breath and Rey put the head of his dick in her mouth. 

“Gods,” Kylo sighed. He put one hand over his eyes and laced the other one in her hair. She worried for a moment that he was going to force her harder than she could go, but he didn’t, just ran his fingers in her hair and let her lazily pucker her lips over the tip of his cock, run circles around it with her tongue. She remembered what Cerryn had said about slow licks and dragged saliva over his balls as slowly as she could, while Kylo’s hands caressed lightly across the top of her back, tickling. He stared at her freckles, counted them, admired the undulating drift of her spine like waves. His pleasure at Rey’s mouth on his dick was smoke that danced up and up in the air but never took on a definite shape. 

When she was ready to stop, she gave him one last long suck, rubbing the underside with her tongue as hard as she could, her hand holding him firmly at the root. Kylo put his hand over hers around his cock and they stroked it together. Rey moved to sit up, lay back on the pillows. 

“Please, lick me,” she whispered to him, “Like the first time I saw you and Cerryn.” In Kylo’s mind, he knew exactly which time that was. Rey pulled her knees up and he pushed on her thighs, watching her pussy bloom. She smelled amazing. He licked her too hard at first and she squirmed and almost kicked him, but in a minute they discovered that Rey liked most for him to suck on her clit and lick just under it. Kylo wrote the alphabet up and down her cunt, between her inner and outer lips, just at the mouth of her opening, gathered spit at the front of his mouth and let it fall at the crest of her mons. Watched it run down, and pushed it inside her with his tongue. 

Rey had never been so wet, her thighs were trembling and she was so, so close. She was holding one leg up from behind her knee and the other hand was holding Kylo’s, an intertwined fist that dug into the back of her thigh. “Ungh, I’m gonna come,” she said in a reedy voice she could barely recognize. Then he put his whole hot clever mouth over her clit and swirled his tongue on it, and Rey was utterly undone. Kylo sat back and watched her shake, pink and freckled and with her hands over her face. Her knees clenched together while she writhed. As her body calmed he lay next to her and peeled one hand away from her face so that he could kiss her. Rey accepted a few small kisses, licked her sweetness from all around his mouth. Stars, she was so eager and filthy, Kylo thought. She smiled at him and grasped his shoulders, moving them both so that he was sitting upright among the pillows, and she was straddling his lap. “Grab your prick,” she panted. “Hold it still.” 

“You are giving a lot of orders, for an unclaimed desert rat,” Kylo said smoothly, squeezing her upper arm. He did not want to hurt or force her, that was not where his pleasure lay. But he was not biddable, either. Rey looked him straight in the eyes, one hand on his shoulder, lightly tracing the burn scar there, in circles, as if she didn’t even realize she was doing it, just responding to the texture. His cock brushed against the place where her thigh met her body, mixing his pre-cum with her sweat.

“This part, I've never done before.” she told him plainly. Without breaking eye contact, her fingers drifted to his chest and she used her fingernail gently on his nipple. “If you want to be inside me, we'll have to do it this way. Please.”

Kylo stared right back at her. Swallowed. She reminded herself to kiss his throat later. Maybe leave a bite mark. “Do you have an implant?” He asked. 

“Yes,” She said before he even finished speaking. Kylo reached down and held his dick for her, twisting his hand and pulling it a bit to get it rock-hard again. Rey used her fingertips to nudge and guide the head to her opening and slowly slid down, changing the angle of her hips when she felt a pinch. His mouth had made her so wet that it wasn’t as difficult as she thought. At first, she only took the head, and it was all she could think about and feel. 

Rey kept breathing, she pressed her mouth to Kylo’s and took his breath, too. He brushed his lips to hers gently, keeping as still as he could, letting her work on him as slowly as she needed. He wasn't some brute; Kylo Ren was worthy of everything he had, through self-discipline and skill. In the moment that Rey could take him fully, she put her head back, breathed "Aaaahhhh", and relaxed her straining arms on his shoulders. Kylo let go of his cock and brought one of her hands to his lips, pushed his tongue between Rey's fingers. She let her head fall all the way forward and rolled her forehead back and forth on his clavicle while he combed his fingers through her hair and moaned into the firelit air. Before long she was grinding in his lap, feeling the pressure of him all the way inside her, and his thumb was on her clit, and then Rey closed her eyes and found the centre of her breath and began to focus on the reason why she was there. 

Feeling Rey in his mind, vibrating along the bond like a tightrope, made fucking her even better. He could smell her all over and he was in so deep and she was so solid in his hands. Everything felt good, but not like a decadent meal or a silken pillow or a bottle of wine; something that would leave you ruined for anything else. Rey rose to him and pushed back and it made him strong. He nuzzled her neck and ran his hand from her shoulder blade to her hip and back again. He used his thumb to flick her clit upwards from below, as he had with his tongue. Rey grasped the back of his neck, put her mouth to his ear and began to whisper, and it took him a moment to realise that she was saying; “Cerryn, tell me how good it was with Cerryn,” and his mind flashed with memories of moonlight-coloured hair, of the way she would always pour his wine first, of how she kept flowers just because she loved them. Cerryn, who had never raised her hand against him, never turned her back to him, not even once. 

It was hard to keep her concentration, but Rey just kept following her breath. It flowed with the rhythm of her body on Kylo’s lap. She touched the bond and said Cerryn’s name in Kylo’s ear, then looked with new eyes for the leap of the thread in the Force that lived in love. Rey knew she only had one chance, but she was strong with the Force and the connection she forged was undeniable. Rey felt the bridge, she took a shard of her Light and planted it deep in Kylo’s presence in the Force. For now, swirling with thick desire, he could not tell that it was newly there. It would be drawn away, light meeting light, to hide in the cavern of his soul where he kept Ben. Later, beaten by water and battle-tired, the spark inside would be fanned by the echo of love. Then it would burst into a flame, until Kylo Ren finally was burned away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter count again! Help I can't stop (staying up until 2 AM writing smut). Enjoy. We're in the home stretch but there's a few loose ends to tie up still.


	8. Intoxicating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The awakening that began when Rey spied on Kylo and Cerryn is complete and she wants the full experience. But what’s her exit strategy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I made you some hardcore smut I hope you like it.

No one had fed the fire, and it was burning lower. Rey let her eyes rest on the ember-studded logs, skimming her fingernails up and down Kylo’s arms, dreamily sucking the shape of her mouth onto his shoulder as he shifted under her impatiently. He put one arm around her waist and tried to move his hips but her squirming was too gentle. 

“I can’t - I won’t finish like this, I need more,” he blurted. She knew what he wanted, she’d seen it at the brothel, and she wanted it too. In her bed on the  _ Falcon _ , in the forest of Ajan Kloss. On the dream-bridge of the  _ Supremacy _ . Rey rose from Kylo’s lap and grabbed the pillows, threw them to the floor next to the bed, near the fire. He threw one down, too. His cock was red and shining in the firelight, and when Rey knelt on one of the pillows and licked the underside, she felt his heartbeat in it. He reached down and stroked her cheek. Rey noticed one of his gloves, half-under the bed, and when she moved to get it, he lowered himself to the rug. Kylo watched Rey stuff the glove into her mouth with her left hand, turn away, and settle over the pillows so that he could take her from behind. He thanked every god he’d ever heard of and mounted her, grasping her thighs. Rey’s swollen lips slid easily back and forth over his dick and he had to use one hand to put it in. Rey sighed and pulled one pillow tighter under her cheek. Kylo pushed his cock all the way inside and leaned over her to keep up the pressure while he began to fuck her with long, smooth movements. She held herself open with one hand and used the other to rub her clitoris, panting so hard that she felt light-headed. There were sounds from Kylo that she hadn’t heard before, his breath coming quickly, and he was grunting in her ear in between smacking kisses on her shoulder blades. He moved his hips back and forth, then pressed up against her in a hard grind. Shallow, shallow, deep. Shallow, shallow, deep. She slithered her hips and smeared the trail of wetness she was leaving on the pillow under her belly.

“Mmmmmf,” Rey moaned, “Mmpphhfff.” Kylo pulled his glove out of her mouth, sweeping it across her tongue. He left it on the ground, crumpled and wet.

“Do you want harder? Tell me.” His right hand slid down to hold her head back, fingers splayed across her jaw, palm resting on her throat. Digging into her cheek. His other hand was on her hip, shoving her back against him. Kylo was more experienced, he could say something with meaning, but all of her awareness was in her body and she was thinking in sensation and not words. Rey tried to speak but all she could do was let out a staccato  _ ah, ah, ah _ , so he did shove harder, with short, sharp thrusts. It was so good, so good. Kylo’s entire body was meeting hers, and she was utterly free to enjoy this moment, fucking herself and fucking him. Rey felt like she was eating a Jogan she’d stolen from a Hutt’s table. She slipped her finger in circles on her slippery clit and clenched hard on his cock, desperate to come. Kylo helped her by pressing on her lower back, changing the angle of his thrust, trying to heighten her pleasure. 

“Unh, oh yes, oh yes oh yes,” she prayed and collided with an orgasm, which took her so hard that Kylo slipped out and bumped against her thigh. He let go of her throat so that she could writhe as she pleased. Her back rippled and her forehead pressed into the rug beyond the pillow. Kylo watched her toes turn white as they curled. It was quiet but it took over her whole body. 

He waited for the span of three breaths then he shoved back in, grabbed a handful of her hair and fucked Rey over and over. She was so wet and open that she didn’t care about the angle or his rhythm anymore, she just let Kylo ride her. He pounded hard, pried her ass cheek aside so that he could watch her cunt blooming open, taking him. Rey clenched on his upstroke. His fingers gripped her ass tightly, making the skin streak pink. 

“Ahhh, do it again,” Kylo said, and him asking made her chest glow. She rested her chin on her hand and concentrated on tightening around him every time he was pulling back. “So tight, so tight,” he muttered to himself. Rey paid attention to his rhythm and waited for its apex. She gave him one long squeeze, braced herself on both hands and raised her hips to meet his thrust, breathed open-mouthed into the pillow as Kylo spurted hot, ropey cum inside her, one of his straining arms arching her backwards, pulling on her hair, the other hand driving down on her ass. 

Kylo used the palm of his hand to push her face back down to the pillows, affectionately shoved it, then slowly withdrew his fingers from her hair. 

Rey sighed happily, relaxed on the makeshift bed, enjoying the warmth from the fire as it fell on her arms, as if she were lying in a sunbeam. Kylo rolled onto his side and lay next to her on the crimson carpet, black and white in hair and pale skin. 

“What are you thinking?” He asked, his expression suffused with soft curiosity. Lit on one side by the smouldering fire. She wondered for a second why he didn’t simply read her mind, but then realized that he just wanted to hear her say it out loud, because he was a smug bastard.

“That I want to do that again, when you’re ready,” Rey said. “And maybe have something to drink.”

  
  


There were dried fruits and nuts, hard cheese and cured meats and honeyed pastries in the cabinet with the wine; Rey supposed this was the kind of ration you’d find in a palace. While Kylo had picked his cloak up and wrapped it around his waist, putting the pillows back on the bed, Rey opened an armoire he’d pointed to. Finery hung silently inside in more colours than Rey had ever seen in one place. She chose a simple Coruscant-blue robe with a cream lining and put it on. The clasps were too unfamiliar, so Kylo helped, enveloping her in elegant fabric he’d chosen for someone else. The wine he’d poured was helping Rey in more ways than one, but her annoyance still had an edge that grated. It was how pleased he felt, how he looked at her as if she were the shiniest thing in the shipyard. He was doing it now, glancing slyly over his shoulder as he stoked the fire. She should have known when she came to this place that he would be much too proud of it. The escape plan tempted her, rising like a plume of golden dust in a corner of her mind.  _ You could leave here now, if you wanted to, with just the smallest nudge of the Force,  _ it whispered. But Rey turned away from the thought and let it dissipate; she couldn’t risk Kylo sensing it. He wasn’t quite where she needed him, yet. Gathering her unbound hair up in her hands, Rey twisted it at the base of her neck, then let it go. She would get him there. They both just needed more wine.

The last of the wine was half-drunk and half-spilled on the bed when Kylo put it in his mouth and passed it to Rey with a kiss. The dribbles that ran down her chin spattered the lining of her robe, and a few other dollops fell on the sheets between them when Kylo pulled back. Pink on white. Rey wiped her face with her hand, swallowed, then wiped her hand on the mattress. He chuckled and dropped the bottle next to the bed, moved in to kiss her again, ran one big hand up her thigh. The room was warm again from the fire. Rey put her hand over his and together they settled against the pillows, kissing deeply while their palms pushed the robe up and open. The wine had made it so easy for her to just let him, without needing to make him work, without even having a reason. His fingertips brushed her pussy, and she took them and brought them to her mouth to lick them, and then put them back, deeper. She wanted him to go slow, commit this to memory, remember it later when he was alone again on his pompous fucking flagship, bracing himself against the wall of the fresher and jerking off. The plumpness of her outer lips, the hard seed at the apex. Delicate folds, furrowed and wet. Her hand guided his, pressing on this finger and then that one, sliding up and down. Their kiss became an exchange of heavy breath, just panting near each other’s faces. Kylo pulled his hand away from her pussy and when she saw that he was going to lick his sodden fingers, Rey sat up and licked them too. He kissed her again and moved to settle between her legs, yanking the cloak from his waist. She scratched the nails of both hands down his body from his navel to his cock and grasped it with both hands, then let go in a teasing movement. 

“I’m not wet enough to take you yet, “ she told him. He stroked both thumbs down the insides of her thighs, then grasped her and lifted her cunt to his face. He placed his mouth over the whole thing, then she felt his tongue shove inside her. One of her heels bounced against his back and she cried out, but he didn’t let up, squirming his tongue over her clit so hard she could barely tell that anything else in the galaxy existed anymore. He leaned forward so that his shoulder could take more of her weight and used one finger to fuck her while he sucked and licked her until she grabbed his hair and pulled as hard as she dared, curving her foot over his clavicle. 

“I think you are now, “ Kylo said, and he stuffed his cock inside her while taking her toes into his mouth. Her sole slipped easily on his chin, so he must have been right. Through their bond, he showed her what she looked like, one breast hidden by the robe, one hand over her mouth, eyes closed. His thick cock pushing in, and coming out glistening. 

“Oh, make me come, make me come,” she begged. Wanting everything, fast and hard. Greedy. Kylo leaned over her and used his thumb to press her clit, pulled his dick out of her then put just the head in, sat almost completely still except for his rubbing hand. He touched their bond and used it to shove her higher and higher, and when her back arched and she started to shake, he fucked her hard and deep until he was finished with her, too. 

“How did you get through the door?” He asked, trying to sound nonchalant. It was better than asking what came next. 

“What? Rey said, as if it were the silliest question he could have come up with. She pet his nipple with a finger, traced from it to one of his scars and another scar and then his other nipple, one unbroken line. “It was simple. There was a column of hands. I took one of them, and it pulled me through.”

He was glad at that moment that she was nuzzled to his shoulder and couldn’t really see his face. He didn’t tell her how the magic of fortress Vader's door worked, that it forced you to confront the thing you were most ashamed of wanting. To do the one thing your highest self told your innermost self it never, ever would, no matter how you longed for it. Rey had come through the door by taking his hand, as he had asked her to do, but it had been easy, because she hadn’t even known what it meant. 

Whenever he’d come there, no matter what he did in the times between, every time it was the same for him. Leia Organa, at the end of a very long hallway. When he first realized, he had tried so many times to enter before he actually did it. Kylo was desperate to do anything, anything else. He told himself that he would have rather held his ass open for Hux before doing this. He tried to trick the door, tried to use the Force, tried to cut with his saber. But there was no use, there was no lie he could imagine that would allow him entrance to the castle that was rightfully his. In order to move forward and claim his grandfather’s power, Kylo Ren could do only one thing: Crawl to his mother, on his knees. Grovelling for forgiveness. At the memory, his fingernails clenched on Rey's upper arm and he was overcome with his own loathing. The feeling that he was trying to restrain her and the sudden spike of darkness in the bond raised the flag in Rey’s mind. This was the sign, this meant it was time. 

“Time for what?” Kylo asked aloud. 

“For you to take a nap,” Rey said lightly, then she pulled the syringe of somniject out of the pillow where she had hidden it, and drove it all the way into his thigh. 


	9. Perfect day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey makes a clean getaway... or does she? She's also just a little bit bi and I hope that's ok. Kylo Ren inches closer to what he thinks is his destiny. This is the end, my friends.

His head was already blurred with wine and his body was open and warm, so it only took the space of a few breaths for the toxin to take effect. Kylo used that time to look back and forth from the syringe to Rey, who was watching his face and probing the bond to make sure it worked, using a Force hold on his arms. She’d thought of everything. “I’m sorry Kylo”, she said, and she actually did seem sorry. From the other side of a hundred shadows, he felt the injector pulled from his skin. Sensed Rey’s lithe movements as she rose from the bed and moved around the room. The shadows multiplied into thousands and Kylo couldn’t see anything anymore, but he felt his cloak being draped over his naked burdensome body. A kiss near his eye that smelled like honeyed pastries and wine. Breath blown right into his ear. “See you soon, Ben,” someone familiar whispered, then the world was only shadow, and it was all just so very boring, that he fell asleep.

Force help her, she so yearned to take all of the clothes. Standing before the armoire, Rey pulled the borrowed robe over her head because she still couldn’t work the clasps and threw it away to drape over the end of the bed. Rey didn’t know where the fresher was, so she picked up her basics from the floor and poured water from the canteen in her pack onto them, standing naked next to the fire for a little warmth and to evaporate any spill. She wiped her thighs and her sex, then dressed herself in her own clothing and tied up her hair. She thought for a second about leaving her soiled basics for him, maybe cheekily draping them across his face. When she realized that she could picture him making them into a shrine, she decided against it, stuffing them into the waterproof pocket of her pack instead. Kylo’s body shifted under the cloak right as Rey put on her left boot and she held her breath, watching his one uncovered foot and waiting for him to say something he’d no doubt think was cutting and clever. But then he quieted, and just lay there, still unconscious. Pack, injector, lightsaber, staff, she listed them in her mind and touched each to make sure that she didn’t leave them behind. Rey looked at the robe again, sprinkled with wine stains like pink buds. It would smell like her, and him. Them together. She snatched it and rolled it up, tucking it into her bag, then she looped the strap over the one for her staff; crossing on her chest, so her arms would be free, and ran. 

BB-8 didn’t ask any questions until they were in the hyperlane; when they were preparing for liftoff, he’d told Rey about seeing two or three roggwarts in the distance, fighting over the corpse of a fallen darkghast. “Really? That sounds… disgusting,” Rey smiled. As they were cruising to escape the atmosphere, she noticed violet flashes among the irontrees of the fen. Electro-blades and other weapons were swinging; the Knights of Ren, culling the cultists Kylo had spoken of in her dream. They had been so close by. Once the hyperdrive was engaged, the radio chatter and radar noise were gone as they travelled in parallel to the other things in space. The little droid beeped and whirred. “Yes, I’m fine, BB,” Rey said. “He was there. He loves that place.” BB rolled backwards, then forwards, and chirped again. “Oh, our battle?” Rey shrugged. “It was a tie.”  _ Well, maybe not quite, _ she thought to herself, wedging her hand between her knees,  _ I got one more hit in than he did. Two, if you count the needle.  _

The tarmac on the base had almost no people on it right before the midday meal. Rey and BB-8 touched down just to the starboard side of the last Y-wing, and it didn’t look like anyone was waiting for them. Two recruits were maintaining the coolant system on Pava’s X-wing, but that was all. Along the path on the perimeter, past her favourite broadleaf tree that had grown to look like it had a porg’s face in the trunk, Rey’s spirits rose higher and higher. Her comm was turned back on but nobody had tried to ping her, not Chewie, not Finn, not Rose, not Poe. She felt like dancing up the ramp of the  _ Falcon _ , where she was going to stow her things and grab her big towel. She’d hop in the sonic to get the last of Mustafar off of her body, and then go to the top of the falls and float. It had only been a handful of hours, and she had gotten to have wine and pleasure and magic and danger, and now the peace and comfort of home. It was everything she wanted, it was going to be a perfect day. The elation was heady, and her secrets were all hers. But then they weren’t, because General Leia was sitting comfortably behind the dejarik board on the  _ Falcon _ , the rack of somniject injectors from the medbay, one missing, in her hand.  _ Oh, fuck _ . 

“Rey, we  _ need _ these. For people who get hurt.” Leia said softly. “Why did you take one? Where did you go? Where is it now?”

_ Insurance to escape a tryst with Kylo Ren. Your father’s house. Your son is sleeping it off,  _ Rey answered every question in her thoughts, but said nothing. She put her pack down on the floor and sat opposite the General. 

“I’ll explain, from the beginning,” Rey said. Leia set her face into the expression that she’d been using for almost forty years to get people to talk to her; curiosity, interest and concern, all genuine, all warm. It was working on Rey even though she was so embarrassed all she could look at was the dejarik board. “I’ve been communicating with Kylo Ren since my time with Master Luke on Ahch-To.”

“Oh, that, yes I know,” Leia said. “He wrote me a missive about it after he saw you two. I got it just before Crait.” 

“ _ What? _ ” Leia was actually waving her hand dismissively. Rey couldn’t believe it. She’d thought she was so sly. 

“Well, I suppose he thought it might be important information for me to know.” The General was doing that rueful sideways smile and the bottom fell out of Rey’s stomach. Tears welled up. She’d been so disloyal. It was almost unbearable.

“Anyway, I tried to close it, I wanted to keep us all - safe, I didn’t want him to be able to spy on us, to reach me, to get to you - Poe, Finn, Ch-Chewie, Rose - through me,” There were more tears falling than she could wipe away, it was all coming on so fast. “But it doesn’t really belong to me… or to him. It’s not ours to control.” she was sobbing now, and Leia got up and came around the table, put an arm around Rey, and just held her until she could speak again. “I had - I had a dream, it told me where to meet him, and from the… from the things that happened in the dream, I knew I had to go alone.” The tears were subsiding and Rey was pushing herself to arrange the right words. She moved so that Leia could sit next to her, one arm around her shoulders, and they both just looked at the board while Rey spoke. “I left last night, after the base was asleep. I went to Mustafar.” Leia’s body tensed but she didn’t say anything, just kept listening. “I took the somniject from the medbay just in case I was at a disadvantage fighting Kylo on his own turf. I was allowed passage, into V- into the fortress. Kylo had told me in the dream that I would find a - a wise spirit there, and I did. She shared secrets about the Force, things she had learned from haunting the palace. Then Kylo showed up. He was distracted, something had gone wrong for him. We, we, we... struggled. But the spirit’s  knowledge helped me, and now Kylo has a shard of my light, in him. I used the bond to plant it there. It is going to push back the darkness of Kylo Ren, and then, maybe someday we will get Ben back. If it works. I think.” Rey said with a crinkling of her nose. Suddenly she felt a hand on her cheek and with a gesture that was both commanding and gentle, Leia turned Rey’s head towards her and planted a fierce kiss next to her nose.

“You infuriating, audacious, intrepid purrgill-wrangler,” the General said, squeezing Rey just a little too hard. “You spend way too much time on this fucking ship. You’re turning out exactly like Han. No more secrets, alright? You could get us all killed. Even if you can’t tell anyone else, please… tell me.” Rey squeezed back and sighed. She would bring herself later to tell Leia that she’d seen her mother, but the rest would have to stay hidden, for a long time yet. After the General left to return the remaining somniject to its place in the medbay, Rey tried to picture what it would be like to have Ben on Ajan Kloss. Taking him to float at the top of the falls, meditating together in Golden Hollow. Sharing a sweet bun under the X-wings, sharing knowing looks next to a bonfire on the tarmac. With one deep breath, Rey centered herself and reached into the Force, wanting to peer at the love that was there again. It was easy to find now that she knew where to look. Ben wasn’t there today, but someone else was, and all of a sudden Rey’s hands felt like she was holding two blocks of ice.

“Hey, this is cute,” Rey said from the doorway of Kaydel Connix’s room in the barracks. She had picked up a figurine on Connix’s shelf next to the door, a squat black and brown creature with a white chest, big shiny eyes and a long pink tongue hanging over its wrinkly jaw. Kaydel looked up from the manual she was reading and smiled at Rey, her honey-coloured hair shining in the sunbeam that fell all across the bed. “Oh yeah, they’re popular companions on my home planet. That’s a replica of the one my mother had when I left home to join the Resistance. It always reminds me of my family. A good-luck charm. I give it a little pet before going on missions. ”

“Well it’s sweet.” She put it carefully back on the shelf. “I was wondering, would you like to climb the falls with me? It’s a beautiful day for a swim.”

This rage felt different from the other rages. Kylo didn’t want to slash anything with his lightsaber. He wanted to keep that bedroom exactly as it was, and entice Rey back to it and possess her again, with the scent from the last time filling her nostrils. He’d awoken naked, beneath his cloak and desperate to relieve his bladder, with a message ringing on the comm chip he kept pinned to his tunic. He ignored it for a while, rifling under the green tapestry next to the armoire to find the fresher door and washing with the hottest water he could stand. His arms and legs were stiff from being immobilized in unnatural sleep for so long, and the heat limbered him up again. Once he was clean and dressed, Kylo went to the library and slid the chip into a datapad. Hux’s face addressed him. “Supreme Leader, in accordance with your instructions, I have overseen the collection of the remains of the pleasure-girl known as Cerryn Kestis, from Corellia. They have been interred on Naboo at the outskirts of the estate known as Varykino, as per your request, with a simple marker, that you may visit at your leisure.” The last part was a sneer but Kylo had just thoroughly deflowered the last Jedi in Vader’s fortress and was beyond caring about Hux’s petty and stupid opinions. “I kindly remind you that this has been undertaken with the understanding that in exchange for my cooperation and discretion in this matter, my sister Evie will receive clemency for her… transgressions. I look forward to hear-”

Suddenly the prerecorded holo message was interrupted by a broadcast that dominated every channel.

_ “At last the work of generations is complete. The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The day of the Sith."  _

Kylo had thought that Rey’s wanton lustful begging was the best thing he was going to hear this cycle, but now... Palpatine’s voice was ringing out across the stars. His grandfather’s master, calling. Summoning him. Just as suddenly, Palpatine’s words on the screen shifted. The audio was the same, but the visual was intended only for him, attuned to his personal comms channel alone. 

_ Apprentice Kylo Ren.  _

_ The Alazmec hoard the wayfinder in the fen. Go to them, cut them down. Seek the wayfinder. Soon, we will be face to face, and Vader’s destiny shall be yours. _

Kylo unclipped his saber, prepared to light it. His blood was already dancing and ready to wield the Force to lethal effect. It was everything he wanted. It was going to be a perfect day. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge, huge, HUGE thank you to everyone who made this fic possible. My AO3 buddy [Denzer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Denzer), my heart-sister and sometime-beta [free_smarcher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/free_smarcher/pseuds/free_smarcher), and my SO who is barely a Star Wars fan and definitely not a Reylo but totally listened to what I read aloud. I truly could not have put in the work this all demanded without the encouragement of my readers (that's you!) and friends.
> 
> A few choice easter eggs from my fic:
> 
> [Behold, Cerryn's grandfather](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Cal_Kestis)  
> [The poetry of the Lightsaber ceremony is one of my forever-faves](https://rpg.fandom.com/wiki/The_Blade_is_the_Heart_of_the_Jedi_\(Lightsaber\))  
> [Of course I slipped Gary in here, I love that little guy.](https://www.instagram.com/garyfisher/?hl=en)


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